Blog 5: Transfer Costs
If the university allowed students to use Illinibucks to move up their position on situations that are based on a priority basis, a few situations that this change could affect are appointments, reserving classrooms or equipment, and class registration.
On campus, students are able to make appointments with academic advisors at the various colleges, counselors in the Turner Student Services Building, or medical professionals at Mckinley to name a few. The effect of Illinibucks in this regard can have a varying effect depending on how serious a student’s situation is. For academic advisors, a student could be seeking help figuring out a career path which is important but does not necessarily need immediate attention compared to a student that is failing one or more of their courses. For counselors, a student might just need some motivation to study for a test or do homework assignments meanwhile a student could be contemplating self harm or harming others. For McKinley, a student might just be coming in because they have the common cold or a student has been having a stomach ache for several days that has been getting more painful everyday. In each situation, students that have a less concerning time sensitive situation or issues using Illinibucks to bypass other students with more serious matters.
Besides Illinibucks being used in individual priority situations, RSOs or Greek organizations with more members could affect other RSOs. Wealthier RSOs would be capable of reserving additional space on campus
I would spend my Illinibucks on meeting with academic advisors to discuss which classes are easy and being the first to register for these classes to get my desired schedule. By spending my Illinibucks in this manner, I am potentially taking the time another student, with more serious concerns, is meeting with the academic advisor and forcing other students to take other classes or time slots that are less beneficial or convenient to them by being one of the first to register for classes.
Viewing Illinibucks from a supply and demand perspective, on the supplied side would be whatever campus service, class position opening, appointment, and so on. For demand, it would be all of the students on campus.
If the administered price is set too low, in many cases demand would far exceed quantity supplied which could lead to students into a bidding process resulting in more Illinibucks being spent on a meeting with an academic advisor, appointment at McKinley, or a class opening. Some students might view Illinibucks as a hassle to use if the price is too low because these students might not want to deal with the hassle of bidding against other students. From a campus standpoint, it would be very confusing for staff to determine which student they are meeting at a certain time if students are outbidding each and for counseling or medical staff knowing who they are meeting with and being able to prepare is vital to helping the student. It would be a transaction cost for students if they spend time monitoring their position only to end up not getting into a specific class or meeting with a faculty member.
If the administered price is set too high, students would be very deliberate with how and what they spend their Illinibucks on. It would cause less issues with scheduling as there would be less bidding amongst students. However on the other hand, it might result in students holding onto their Illinibucks in case of worse situations similar to how people will hold out on going to the doctor for as long as possible to avoid medical payments but by then their condition has grown more serious.
On campus, students are able to make appointments with academic advisors at the various colleges, counselors in the Turner Student Services Building, or medical professionals at Mckinley to name a few. The effect of Illinibucks in this regard can have a varying effect depending on how serious a student’s situation is. For academic advisors, a student could be seeking help figuring out a career path which is important but does not necessarily need immediate attention compared to a student that is failing one or more of their courses. For counselors, a student might just need some motivation to study for a test or do homework assignments meanwhile a student could be contemplating self harm or harming others. For McKinley, a student might just be coming in because they have the common cold or a student has been having a stomach ache for several days that has been getting more painful everyday. In each situation, students that have a less concerning time sensitive situation or issues using Illinibucks to bypass other students with more serious matters.
Besides Illinibucks being used in individual priority situations, RSOs or Greek organizations with more members could affect other RSOs. Wealthier RSOs would be capable of reserving additional space on campus
I would spend my Illinibucks on meeting with academic advisors to discuss which classes are easy and being the first to register for these classes to get my desired schedule. By spending my Illinibucks in this manner, I am potentially taking the time another student, with more serious concerns, is meeting with the academic advisor and forcing other students to take other classes or time slots that are less beneficial or convenient to them by being one of the first to register for classes.
Viewing Illinibucks from a supply and demand perspective, on the supplied side would be whatever campus service, class position opening, appointment, and so on. For demand, it would be all of the students on campus.
If the administered price is set too low, in many cases demand would far exceed quantity supplied which could lead to students into a bidding process resulting in more Illinibucks being spent on a meeting with an academic advisor, appointment at McKinley, or a class opening. Some students might view Illinibucks as a hassle to use if the price is too low because these students might not want to deal with the hassle of bidding against other students. From a campus standpoint, it would be very confusing for staff to determine which student they are meeting at a certain time if students are outbidding each and for counseling or medical staff knowing who they are meeting with and being able to prepare is vital to helping the student. It would be a transaction cost for students if they spend time monitoring their position only to end up not getting into a specific class or meeting with a faculty member.
If the administered price is set too high, students would be very deliberate with how and what they spend their Illinibucks on. It would cause less issues with scheduling as there would be less bidding amongst students. However on the other hand, it might result in students holding onto their Illinibucks in case of worse situations similar to how people will hold out on going to the doctor for as long as possible to avoid medical payments but by then their condition has grown more serious.
Some of what you wrote I did not understand. When you call to make an appointment with an adviser, do they prioritize the appointment based on what you tell them? Likewise with McKinley, do they do that? Or is it first come first served?
ReplyDeleteLeaving the U of I for a second, several years ago I was in the Emergency Room at the University of Michigan hospital after I had a severe fall and was taken there by an ambulance. The prioritized cardiac arrest cases and anything else where loss of life was imminent. But otherwise they went by first come first served, or so it seemed. In other words, they had a threshold of what was so serious it had to be dealt with immediately. Everything else that was below the threshold meant you had to wait your turn.
I'd think something like that would also apply to the situations you describe, but I don't know that for a fact.
Turning to your preferences on the use of Illinibucks - do you really want easy classes? And do you expect advisers to know this? How would the advisers get information on this? There are various Websites - Rate My Professor - that have this sort of information, but it may not be collected in a way that makes the information reliable. Do you use these sites at all? The university published an incomplete list of instructors who are rated as excellent. Do you use that information in choosing your courses?
In your last scenario where the administered price of Illinibucks is too high, would that make it like it is now, without the Illinibucks? If so, what happens then? Do students procrastinate on getting services they need?
To my knowledge, advisers do not prioritize appointments based on the student's reason for the appointment. Students can make appointments for somethings at McKinley or they could walk in. While writing the blog, I thought students with appointments had more priority over students without appointments unless the students without appointments used Illinibucks to increase their priority i.e. taking someone's appointment time.
DeleteI do want easy classes. I think advisers have an idea of what students think of a class and are able to get this information from meeting with students or through the end of semester survey for a class. I have used Rate My Professor to lookup what previous students have thought of a professor and the course they taught if for example two different professors were teaching the same course (ECON 102 with Professor A or ECON 102 with Professor B) or trying to determine between two different courses (ECON 102 or CMN 102). I did not know the university published a list that rates professors and have not used it to determine which courses to take.
I think in the scenario where the administered price of Illinibucks is too high, there would not be much of a change to campus but it does create the small probability of having priority, such as a scheduled appointment, be given to someone else last minute. If this does happen the student that had priority will need to select a different time. As a student, I firmly believe students procrastinate on getting services they need because students procrastinate everything.